Soon, the Gorakhpur-Lucknow Vande Bharat and several other trains running on the route may take shorter travel time as the Railway Ministry is planning to raise the sectional speed to 130 kmph with fencing along the track on the route, documents seen by News18 show.
According to a tender, for which bidding will start by August-end, fencing along the track to raise the speed up to 130kmph will be done in the Gorakhpur-Barachak section of the Gorakhpur-Barabanki line of the Lucknow Division in the North Eastern Railway.
While it is a very small section of about 150 km, it will play a significant role in enhancing the sectional speed as well as cutting down on the travel time, according to a ministry official.
“This is a critical route of the section. By enhancing the speed up to 130 kmph, we will be able to cut down the travel time by 30-50 minutes depending on the train and route. So far, the maximum speed allowed was 120 kmph but the maximum operating speed was 110 km,” the official said on condition of anonymity.
On being asked if the travel time of the Gorakhpur-Lucknow Vande Bharat train will also be reduced, the official replied in the affirmative. They also said that the fencing will ensure there are no incidents involving cattle.
The official added that fencing may allow the trains to run at a speed of 160 kmph, too, in the Lucknow-Gorakhpur route.
FENCING ALONG THE ROUTE
The fencing will be a “W” metal beam crash barrier – two 2mm thick corrugated sheet metal beams – railing on a 1.50m high channel post above ground level. The steel post shall be 1.50m above and 1.2m below the ground level, the document says.
Once started, the work will take about one-and-a-half-years to complete.
“Drone survey should be conducted every 60 days as per instruction of engineer in-charge for monitoring of progress of the work…. Contractor is bound to achieve physical progress of work as per the schedule for completion period of work – within 547 days from date of issue of letter of acceptance,” the document added.
Further, the review of physical progress of work will be done every 30 days starting from date of issue of letter of acceptance of work and any shortfall in physical progress of work may draw recovery of liquidated damages on the deficit running metre for the work. September 11 will be the tender closing date.
The Gorakhpur-Lucknow Vande Bharat was launched in July and is currently running at an average speed of around 70 kmph. From both sides, the train takes about four hours to complete the journey. Since the launch, a number of cattle run-over incidents have been reported and one incident of stone-pelting was also registered.
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